MNpublius.com

Senator Norm Coleman has suddenly decided to stop supporting President Bush’s policy for the war in Iraq despite the fact that under a year ago Coleman compared Bush in Iraq to Lincoln during the Civil War. Yes, that’s right he made that comparison… wow. At any rate, it seems odd that the Senator would just cut and run from Bush (see what I did there) just after an election… oh, wait, maybe that 20 point win of Klobuchar’s scared him… hmm.

Well, seems that Tom Scheck is thinking the same things but, thankfully for us all, he’s managed to intelligently transcribe those thoughts to paper. The whole article is definitely worth a read (well, if you like truth and honesty) but I also have some excerpts prepped for you all, enjoy:

When Wellstone decided to vote against the war, Coleman said Wellstone didn’t understand the idea of peace through strength. He said at the time that Congress should back President Bush.

“Congress is faced with a big decision and now is not the time to be passive, isolationist or apologetic,” Coleman said at the time. “Now is not the time to think demilitarization or protest or demonstrations for the sake of dissent.”

And Coleman now:

“I refuse to put more American lives on the line in Baghdad without being assured that the Iraqis themselves are willing to do what they need to do to end the violence of Iraqi against Iraqi,” Coleman on the eve of President Bush’s decision to send 21,000 more troops to Iraq. He said that he doesn’t support the increase because he’s worried that adding more troops will add more targets for the enemy.

And, ouch, the whole Abraham Bush thing:

Seven months ago at the state Republican State Convention in Minneapolis, Coleman compared President Bush’s efforts in Iraq to that of Abraham Lincoln’s during the Civil War.

“This is a war we did not start, but one we cannot lose,” he said. “President Bush is seeing the war in Iraq through the end because the objective is still the same. Failure in the war on terror is not an option. A democratic Iraq is good for the whole world. A weak and vacillating America is not an option.”

Finally, an interesting read on the situation:

Steven Smith, a political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis, says Coleman saw up close what happened to Republican Mark Kennedy when he ran against DFLer Amy Klobuchar for Senate.

“Congressman Kennedy lost badly in the election. Surely the war in Iraq was a big issue. The congressman himself blames the war in large part for his loss,” according to Smith. “Sen. Coleman must be worrying that this war is going to drag on for another two years with no significant change in conditions in Iraq and that Republicans will suffer badly in the 2008 elections, including him.”